Formation
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Sunni-Deobandi terrorist outfit was formed in
1996 by a break away group of radical sectarian extremists of the
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP),
a Sunni extremist outfit, which accused the parent organisation of
deviating from the ideals of its slain co- founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz
Jhangvi. It is from Maulana Jhangvi that the LeJ derives its name. It
was formed under the leadership of Akram Lahori and Riaz Basra. The LeJ
is one of the two sectarian terrorist outfits proscribed on August 14,
2001, by President Pervez Musharraf.

Ideology and
ObjectivesThe LeJ aims to transform
Pakistan into a Sunni state, primarily through violent means. The
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is part of the broader Deoband movement

Leadership and
Command StructureMuhammad Ajmal alias Akram
Lahori is reportedly the present Saalar-i-Aala (‘Commander-in-Chief’) of
the LeJ. Lahori was originally with the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP),
which he had joined in 1990. Subsequently, in 1996, he along with Malik
Ishaque and Riaz Basra founded the LeJ and launched terrorist activities
in Punjab. He has also reportedly established a training camp in Sarobi,
Afghanistan after securing support from the erstwhile Taliban regime
there.

Lahori succeeded Riaz
Basra, who was killed in Mailsi, Multan on May 14, 2002. Lahori is
himself in police custody following his arrest in Orangi Town, Karachi,
on June 17, 2002 based on information provided by Shabbir Ahmed––an LeJ
cadre who arrested by Karachi police in Gulzar-i-Hijri on the same day.
Police also recovered two Kalashnikovs and two TT pistols from the
possession of Lahori, who was carrying head money of Rs five million
announced by the Sindh government and another Rs five million announced
by the Punjab government. Five accomplices of Lahori were also arrested
on the same day. At his arrest, a senior member of the LeJ, Qari Ataur
Rahman alias Naeem Bukhari, issued a press statement expressing the
apprehension that Lahori might be killed in a "fake" encounter. Rahman
was himself later arrested from his hideout in Gulistan-i-Jauhar,
Karachi. Rahman is allegedly involved in the abduction-cum-murder of US
journalist Daniel Pearl. It is, however, not clear if Lahori has passed
on the mantle to any one else, or continues to head the outfit while
being in detention.

Lahori, according to
reports of July 2, 2002 quoting senior police officials, was involved in
38 cases of sectarian killings in Sindh. These included the killing of
Ehtishamuddin Haider, brother of Federal Interior Minister Moinuddin
Haider, Pakistan State Oil Managing Director Shoukat Raza Mirza.
Besides, he was also involved in the massacre at Imambargah Mehmoodabad
and in the murder of Iranian cadets in Rawalpindi. Lahori reportedly
confessed during interrogation that he was involved in 30 cases of
sectarian killings in Punjab, including those of 24 persons who were
attending a Majlis in Mominpura. Also he revealed that his group had
planned to kill Interior Minister Moinuddin Hiader, but due to tight
security measures, murdered his brother instead. Consequent to the death
of Riaz Basra, Lahori was acting as LeJ chief and he himself reportedly
monitored and perpetrated sectarian killings in Karachi where he was
residing for the last one and a half years.

Lahori’s predecessor
was Basra. He was involved in more than 300 terrorist incidents,
including attacking Iranian missions, killing an Iranian diplomat Sadiq
Ganji in December 1990 and targeting government officials. He was
arrested and tried by a special court for Ganji's killing, but escaped
during trial in 1994 from police custody while being produced in court.
He was Chief of the Khalid bin Walid unit of the Afghan Mujahideen in
Afghanistan.

Media reports said Riaz
Basra, along with three of his accomplices, was killed in an encounter
on May 14, 2002. The encounter occurred at Dakota, which had been
targeted twice in the past by the proscribed LeJ. Basra was allegedly in
police custody in Faisalabad since January 2002 and was being
interrogated for the activities of his group. According to reports
quoting police sources, four armed terrorists came to Chak Kot Chaudhry
Sher Mohammad Ghalvi on May 14 and stopped near the house of Chaudhry
Fida Hussain Ghalvi, district chief of the banned Shia group
Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP).
Consequent to a shoot-out between the two groups the police intervened
and in the ensuing encounter Basra and his associates were killed.
Ghalvi asserted that the LeJ cadres had come to kill him and to
emphasise his belief also pointed out that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had
killed his brother, Mukhtar, in year 1997. Police sources said that
Basra's identity was established by one of his accomplices, Kashif, who
is under detention for alleged involvement in another sectarian killing.

Consequent to Basra’s
killing, reports on his arrest in January 2002 have indicated that he
was arrested after the Faisalabad police captured Ajmal alias Sheikh
Jamshaid, an associate of Basra. Ajmal assisted the police in arresting
Liaquat Ali of Kehror Pucca, who was wanted for his alleged involvement
in a triple murder case. After interrogating Liaquat, the police raided
a number of locations in Faisalabad, Lahore, Jhang, Sargodha and certain
other parts of Pakistan. Based on information received from Ajmal and
Liaquat, Riaz Basra was arrested.

Basra is described as a
religious fanatic with extraordinary enthusiasm. Motivated by the
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and politically active since 1988, he contested
elections to the provincial assembly from Lahore as an SSP nominee. It
is under Basra's leadership that the LeJ rose to become the most dreaded
sectarian terrorist outfit in Pakistan. The intensity of its threat was
such that Nawaz Sharief, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who was
served a threatening letter by Basra, stopped attending open courts.

The entire leadership
of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi consists of Jehadis who fought against Soviet
forces in Afghanistan. A majority of its cadres are drawn from the
numerous Sunni madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan.

Media reports indicate
that the LeJ is an amalgam of loosely co-ordinated sub-units in various
parts of Pakistan, particularly in the districts of Punjab with
autonomous chiefs for each sub-unit. Riaz Basra reportedly controls the
LeJ’s units in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Sargodha. Another top
LeJ terrorist, Malik Ishaque, currently under detention, was the chief
of the units in Faisalabad, Multan and Bahawalpur divisions and in
Bhakkar district. The success of most of its terrorist operations is
attributed to its multi-cellular structure, whereby the outfit is
divided into small groups that are not in constant contact with each
other.

The LeJ is organized
into small cells of approximately five to eight cadres each, who operate
independently of the others. Individual LeJ cadres are reportedly
unaware of the number of cells in existence similar to their own or the
structure of operations. After carrying out an attack LeJ cadres often
disperse and then reassemble at the various training camps to plan
future operations.

A news report of
October 2000 claimed that the LeJ had split into two factions––one
headed by Riaz Basra (since deceased) and the other by the chief of the
outfit's Majlis-i-Shoora (Supreme Council), Qari Abdul Hai alias Qari
Asadullah alias Talha. The split reportedly occurred due to differences
between the two over resumption of ethnic strife, which had receded
after the military coup in Pakistan in October 1999. While Basra
favoured resumption of terrorist attacks against Shia targets in order
to force the government to comply with the demands of the outfit, Talha
opposed the plan as he reportedly felt it was suicidal not only for the
organization but also for national solidarity. Talha based his opinion
on the assumption that, with a military regime in power, any armed
activity would invite stern action against the LeJ. Qari Hai was Basra’s
lieutenant and ran the latter’s training camp in Sarobi, Afghanistan,
until the two fell out and formed their own respective factions. While
the majority of Hai’s supporters are Karachi-based, Basra’s cadres have
their roots in the Punjab.

Basra figured on a US
State Department list of terrorists who "live in or have lived in, have
trained in, are headquartered in or financed from Afghanistan". Riaz
Basra, who escaped from police custody was wanted by Pakistani
authorities in connection with sectarian terrorism, and had been
described in the US State Department list as a "would be assassin" of
the deposed Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharief. Basra was allegedly
involved in a terrorist incident on January 3, 1999 in which a bridge on
the Lahore-Raiwind road, close to Nawaz Sharif's house, was blown up
shortly before the then Prime Minister was due to pass by. Basra was
also reportedly sighted at various places in Pakistan in the past five
years, and Pakistani newspapers have often received messages purportedly
sent by him claiming responsibility for certain sectarian terrorist
attacks. Although police sources in Sargodha, on April 5, 1999, reported
that he was killed in an encounter, his mother's testimony and forensic
tests have since disproved this.

Riaz Basra was
allegedly permitted to escape from the annual Tableghi congregation in
November 2000, in Raiwind. Reports indicate that security force
personnel allowed Basra to escape fearing large-scale bloodshed if he
were arrested at the congregation. Official sources point that Basra is
adept at changing his appearance, and that he has a number of lookalikes
within his ranks and on a number of occasions he has mistakenly been
reported killed.

The outfit had suffered
the loss of several of its top leaders and other cadres due to a
crackdown initiated by the Nawaz Sharief administration in 1998.

Pakistani reports
indicate that the active cadre strength of the LeJ is approximately 300.
Most of these cadres are either under arrest in Pakistan or were based
in the various training camps in Afghanistan, from where they regularly
came to Pakistan to carry out terrorist activities. Media reports have
also added that the outfit is never short of cadres, in spite of the
large-scale arrests or the deaths of cadres in encounters. Media reports
in September 2001 have indicated that the LeJ has been fielding newer
cadres to evade arrests.

Two of the LeJ’s most
important training centres are located in Muridke (Sheikhupura) and
Kabirwal, in Khanewal district. It also has a training camp in
Afghanistan located near the Sarobi Dam, Kabul. The present status of
the camp is not known. Qari Asadullah, a top LeJ terrorist has
reportedly been supervising and ensuring the training facilities of
Pakistan-origin terrorists at this camp in collaboration with and
support of the erstwhile Taliban regime. However, in the light of US
attacks on Afghanistan, the fate of LeJ camps in that country is not
immediately known. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi cadres are reportedly using police
uniforms for their operations in order to secure easy access to mosques
and for easy extrication after committing a terrorist act.

Media reports indicate
that the occasional successes against the LeJ by the security agencies
have forced the top leadership to remain underground. Rather than risk
arrest by engaging in attacks themselves, they have begun training new
recruits and directing operations.

LinkagesAlthough SSP chief Maulana Azam
Tariq has repeatedly dissociated himself publicly from the terrorist
activities of the LeJ, security agencies and media reports indicate that
the two outfits are closely linked to each other. For instance, when LeJ
terrorist Sheikh Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was due to be hanged in February 2001
for terrorist offences, Maulana Tariq, instead of dissociating himself
from the terrorist, led a campaign for the remission of his sentence and
also offered diyat (blood money) to Iran. Sheikh Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, was
hanged in the Mianwali Central Jail. Nawaz was 19 years old when he
murdered the Iranian diplomat in Lahore on December 19, 1990. It took
the courts and the authorities 11 years to decide his fate. During his
trial he was kept at different jails in the Punjab. Prior to his
hanging, the Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed two review petitions
filed by him against the death penalty.

Both the SSP and LeJ
maintain that they are not organisationally linked. But, few analysts of
the sectarian conflict in Pakistan believe this to be true. Their cadres
come from the same madrassas as also a similar social milieu. The SSP
leadership has never criticised the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi because the two
organisations share the same sectarian belief system and worldview. They
also have a similar charter of demands, which includes turning Pakistan
into a Sunni state. Both the outfits have consistently resorted to
violence and killings to press their demands, though the SSP has also
been attempting to adopt a political path.

The SSP and LeJ have
very close links with the Taliban militia. They assisted the Taliban in
every way they can both in Afghanistan and within Pakistan. They have
fought alongside the Taliban militia in Afghanistan against the Northern
Alliance. Besides, all three groups are closely linked in their fight
against the Shias, be it in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. LeJ and SSP
cadres reportedly played an active part in the massacres of Shias by the
erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Many hardcore LeJ
terrorists were given sanctuary in Afghanistan by the erstwhile Taliban
regime. The Taliban leadership had consistently refused to hand over 21
wanted Pakistani terrorists to Islamabad, saying the fugitives,
belonging to the SSP and the LeJ, were not on their soil. Pakistani
authorities, however, repeatedly emphasised that these terrorists
continued to live in the Afghan capital, Kabul before the US attacks in
Afghanistan commenced. The whereabouts of these Afghanistan-based LeJ
terrorists, after the US launched attacks on Afghanistan, is not clear.
Although the Taliban refused to acknowledge the presence of these
terrorists, the Pakistani establishment pointed that they were enjoying
its hospitality.

Pakistani Interior
Minister Moinuddin Haider visited Kabul and Kandahar in March 2001 and,
among other things, discussed with the Taliban regime the extradition of
Pakistani fugitives. The Taliban declined to sign an extradition treaty
but promised to search and surrender them. At the time, topping the list
of wanted persons was the then LeJ chief, Riaz Basra, who, like the
others on the list carried a handsome reward on his head. In fact,
official sources later said Basra had visited Karachi and southern
Punjab during the year 2001 for medical treatment. The authorities also
added that Basra had narrowly escaped arrest in the Punjab during his
visit when he had stayed in Pakistan for almost six months.

Besides, Basra
Zakiullah and present chief Lahori, too, figured on the list of most
wanted persons. Official sources hold that LeJ terrorists frequently
cross over into Pakistan from Afghanistan using unfrequented routes,
commit bank robberies and sectarian-related killings.

Being part of the
broader Deoband movement, the LeJ secured considerable assistance from
other Deobandi outfits. It also has an effectual working relationship
with other Deobandi political and terrorist outfits at a personal level,
if not at the organisational level. In Afghanistan, they reportedly
trained along with the Taliban and other Deobandi terrorists from
Pakistan at the same training camps.

The LeJ is also
reported to have links with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM),
Pakistan-based terrorist outfit active in India’s Jammu and Kashmir.
Many front ranking LeJ terrorists are have reportedly received training
at HuM camps in Afghanistan. According to a media report, many LeJ
cadres secured training at the HuM's Khalid Bin Waleed camp in
Afghanistan. According to the same report, the standard training period
consists of 4-8 weeks during which the trainees are provided extensive
training in handling sophisticated small arms, assembling and handling
of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), other varieties of explosives,
as well as in hit-and-run tactics.

The LeJ also maintains
links with another Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, the Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM).
Jaish Chief Maulana Masood Azhar reportedly wanted to name his outfit
Lashkar-e-Muhammad but was ‘advised’ to avoid the association with the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Reports hold that the
LeJ has been securing financial assistance from Saudi Arabia. Evidence
of private Arab funding was disclosed with the arrest of several LeJ
cadres responsible for the May 1997 killing of Ashraf Marth, a senior
Police officer who had arrested the killers of Agha Mohammed Ali Rahimi,
the Iranian Cultural Attaché in Multan. A substantial portion of LeJ’s
funding is reportedly derived from wealthy benefactors in Karachi,
Pakistan.

Activities and
IncidentsThe LeJ's chief area of
operation is within Pakistan, where it has admitted responsibility for
numerous massacres of Shias and targeted killings of Shia religious and
community leaders.

More than 70 doctors
and 34 lawyers, various Ulema (religious scholars), teachers and
students of seminaries, politico-religious parties leaders and
activists, officials of various government and private institutions have
been assassinated between June 2000 and June 2002 in Pakistan by the SSP
and the LeJ. All of them were Shias.

The LeJ has also
carried out numerous attacks against Iranian interests and Iranian
nationals in Pakistan. The outfit uses terror tactics with the aim of
forcing the Pakistani State into accepting its narrow interpretations of
Sunni sectarian doctrines as official doctrines. The victims of its
terror tactics have been leaders and workers of rival Shia outfits,
bureaucrats, policemen, and worshippers of the 'other' sect. The
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is widely considered to be the most secretive
sectarian terrorist outfit in Pakistan. It has never exposed itself to
the Pakistani public or media. The only means of exposure is through the
fax messages and press releases it sends to newspaper offices claiming
responsibility for an act of terrorism.

In 1999, the LeJ, in a
press release, offered a reward of 135 million Pakistani rupees for
anyone who would undertake the killing of Nawaz Sharief, the then Prime
Minister; Shabaz Sharief, his younger brother and the then Chief
Minister of Punjab, and Mushahid Hussein, the then Information Minister.
An attempt was, indeed, made on the life of Nawaz Sharief when a bomb
exploded and destroyed a bridge between Lahore and Raiwind, barely an
hour before he was to pass by on January 2, 1999.

The LeJ reportedly also
uses rafts across the Attock River for shipping arms and ammunition from
the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) into Punjab. The new modus
operandi was chosen to hoodwink the authorities after permanent pickets
were set up by the Punjab police on all land routes coming into the
Province from the NWFP, in addition to intensifying patrolling along all
such routes. Earlier, the LeJ had been using two bridges, one near
Taunsa and another near Bhakkar, to transport arms and ammunition.

The LeJ is currently
reported to be finding it hard to execute terrorist strikes because it
has become difficult to smuggle arms into Punjab and also due to the
differences between Riaz Basra and Qari Asadullah.

In October 1997, a
Pakistani news report quoted Malik Ishaque, a top LeJ terrorist
currently under detention, as saying, "I have been instrumental in the
killing of 102 human beings."

The LeJ was responsible
for the Lahore Mominpura Cemetery massacre on January 11, 1998, in which
25 Shia Muslims were killed and 50 others injured. Most of the victims
were women and children who had gathered for Qur'an-Khwani (Quranic
recital) at the cemetery. Aziz Gujar, Haroon Mansoor, Riaz Basra and
Akram Lahori were the main accused in this massacre. While the first two
were arrested, Basra and Lahori evaded arrest.

Acting upon information
secured from LeJ chief Lahori and Rahman, both of who are now under
detention, police recovered 134 Kalashnikov rifles, rockets, landmines,
explosives, chemicals, and poison-filled capsules. Karachi Police have
also arrested the wife and a son of Lahori. Lahori was also taken to
Punjab and, based on his information, police and agents of US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided various places and arrested several
suspected terrorists.

The Sindh government on
October 15, 2001 announced head money for the arrest of 12 proclaimed
offenders involved in heinous sectarian terrorist attacks. According to
the announcement, seven absconders belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi while
five are activists of another proscribed terrorist outfit, the Sipah-e-Muhammad
Pakistan (SMP).
The Sindh government announced Rs 1 million cash reward for each of the
three Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists, Qari Abdul Hai alias Qari Asad alias
Talha, resident of District Alipur, Muzaffargar; Atta-ur-Rehman alias
Nadeem Bukhari, resident of Paposh Nagar, Karachi, and Asif Ramzi,
resident of Karachi. Half a million rupees cash reward each was fixed
for another three LeJ cadres - Asif Ramzi alias Chotto alias Hafiz,
resident of Muhammad Nagar, Karachi; Muhammad Rashid; and Lal Muhammad
alias Lal Bhai alias Faqeer, resident of Orangi Town, Karachi. Rs 0.25
million cash reward was fixed for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi cadre Muhammad Umer
alias Haji Sahib, resident of Shah Faisal Colony, Karachi.

Karachi Police on June
29 published photos of 10 terrorists wanted in connection with the
murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl and for the two car-bomb attacks on
Western targets in Karachi. At least 16 persons, including 12 French
nationals, were killed and 26 persons injured in a bomb blast in Karachi
on May 8, 2002. In the second attack, near the US Consulate in Karachi
on June 14, 12 persons were killed. At least five of the 10 terrorists
identified are believed to be LeJ cadres. It was also the first occasion
that police identified LeJ as being involved in all the three incidents.
One of the photographed men, Asif Ramzi, is listed as wanted in the
Pearl murder case and also for sectarian killings, with a three million
rupees-reward offered for his capture. Another suspect, Naveedul Hassan,
is listed as wanted in the June 14 terrorist incident and his capture
carries two million rupee-award. Sharib is listed as wanted in both the
Consulate-attack and the May 8-attack.

According to senior
investigators, the
Al Qaeda network is suspected to have
worked with LeJ cadres to plan both the car-bomb attacks. Intelligence
sources have indicated that certain LeJ terrorists arrested in Karachi
in June 2002 have been allegedly working with the Al Qaeda to strike at
targets in Pakistan.